Carpet your trailer bunks
OK. This is what I did. Here's some pics of what I had. I bought it this way, and had never had a trailer, much less a highsider:
First thing I did was to move the jack behind the winch and move the winch as far forward as I could while still being able to open the tailgate of the truck. (Yeah, I put the 7 keeper bait-stealers in for effect. Hey, that's 4 pounds of prime pan fish there!) (Nice shirt, too)
The first thing I found was that this roller was improperly installed. I had noticed that it wasn't turning very well, and as you can see, it was bent.
OK, who's idea was this? This is one of the worst engineered devices I have ever seen. This piece of crap must have been designed by Performance Trailer's owner's nephew to keep him busy. No wonder they went out of business. I know they only used the folding tongue for shipment, and I can't imagine that there were any end-users who regularly folded the tongue after they purchased the trailer. Think of what this piece of crap cost!
Why didn't they just drill a couple of holes and ship something like this with the trailer?
And look at what these two pieces of crap have done to my boat! Of course, most of this was done before I got the boat, but I distinctly remember loading the boat on the trailer in a high wind when at least some of the damage happened. That day was the day I started thinking that this just wasn't right.
So, I was off to the lumber yard to get some boards for the new bunks. First, and this happened before I took the boat off of the trailer, I measured the distance from the ends of the original bunks to the bottom of the transom. I added two inches and determined that I needed full 8 foot 2X4's. It is extremely important to get two of the straightest 2X4's you can find. And get pressure treated lumber. I probably went through 25 boards to find two that were truly flat and straight. And I could't find anything at either of the "big box" stores. I went to a real lumber yard, and even then had to search for two good ones. I laid them on the bottom of the boat to figure out how far apart they had to be to provide proper support.
Then I removed all of the rollers and the old bunks, and moved the bunk supports over so that they would place the new bunks in their proper place.
I then laid the raw bunks on the supports to "dry fit" them to make sure they were at least close. I marked the boards where they would be mounted after I put the carpet on them.
I had all these parts left over. I thought I might find a use for them later, but I didn't. If anyone wants them, come and get them.
These are the brackets for the bunks. I cleaned them up a bit and re-used them on the new bunks.
I bought the best quality indoor-outdoor carpet I could find. I only needed one yard of 12 foot wide carpet. I actually only used less that half of it, but since this was my first time at this, I bought extra. The weasel at Lowe's complained about having to go to all that trouble to cut only one yard of carpet, until I told him what I was doing, and that I couldn't go fishing until this was done. He changed his tune right away and started asking me all kinds of questions about my boat and my trailer and where I fished. Anyway, I measured how far it was around a 2X4 and determined that the carpet needed to be cut to 9-1/2 inches by 9 feet. This would leave a 6 inch length of carpet on each end of the bunk for folding over and covering the ends. The first edge of the carpet to be stapled was laid out 1-1/2 inches from one edge. I measured this with a rafter square, whose short side is 1-1/2 inches.
After stapling one side of the carpet, I rolled the board over and stapled the other side, stretching the carpet as tight as I could. As far as staples go, it depends on what kind of stapler you have, and how much you want to spend. I traded a buddy 3/4 of a gallon of adhesive remover for a box of 5,000 galvanized staples which fit my pneumatic stapler. I would rather have used stainless steel staples, but they were $30 for 1,200 staples, plus shipping. But I used a lot of the galvanized staples, and after looking at the wear on the carper on the old bunks, I figured that if the staples rusted away, I'd just put a bazillion more free staples in them. This is what the first one looked like.
The excess carpet to be used to cover up then ends of the bunks had to be trimmed to make a good fit.
I trimmed them like this.
I folded them like I was wrapping a Christmas present, but used staples instead of tape.
Now, I had never done this before, so I was beginning to feel really proud. I felt like Paul in Dune - "He shall know your ways, as if born to them". So it was time for more beer. Then the new bunks had to be waxed. When Brett first told me this, I though he had a screw loose, but I depended on his judgment and his experience. I laid the bunks out in the sun to let them heat up. Black carpet heats up pretty quick. In preparation, I had purchased some Gulf Wax (just like granny used to use when canning preserves) from the local grocery. After the carpet got hot, I rubbed the wax on heavily until the carpet started looking like it had a coating of fine frost on a cold morning. Then I left it in the sun for about an hour until it glistened. Thanks, Brett.
I mounted the new bunks on the trailer, but did not tighten the bolts. It was my intention to put the boat on the trailer, and let the weight of the boat settle the new bunks to where they fit best.
I took the boat and trailer out into the yard and winched it up to settle the bunks.
The front brackets for the bunks needed to be raised to make the boat sit level.
I also neede to add a support to the trailer for the bow. I couldn't re-use any of the junk I had removed, and didn't want to buy anything, so I raised the front bunk supports, then measured the height I needed for the bow support, and built this. Had to run up to Ace and pick up some galvanized carriage bolts, nuts and washers. Didn't have to paint it, but felt obligated after all this work.
Well, I think it came out pretty good. I tightened all the bolts on the bunks, put the motor back on it and took it to the Tomoka Basin to see how it worked. I backed it down to the water and disconnected the hook from the winch. It slid down into the water like I had greased those bunks with gull poop. (Thanks, again, Brett). Retrieving it was just as easy. I lined her up and tugged on the bow line and it slid up the bunks with almost no effort. I'm a happy Gheenoer.
"Who 'Noe?"
Review by: Daytona Kemo
Date posted: 09/15/08
